For all the shiny trappings, the bells and whistles of its $150-million facelift completed over the past couple of years, BC Place has developed the dire reputation of being a boneyard. Skeletal remains and rotting carcasses of presumptuous infiltrators litter the lair. The Lions are 8-1 there this season.

Teams travel to Vancouver to play.

They go to BC Place to die.

Yet as the Calgary Stampeders wrapped up preparations at McMahon Stadium, their final practice on home turf of 2012, there was no hint of anxiety or dread. They were bright, sunny bunch. Loose. Unafraid. Brimming with ... possibilities.

Just call 'em KG and the Sunshine Band.

"Destiny? I think for what we've been through this year, we can sometimes feel that way," acknowledges frontman Kevin Glenn. "We've overcome a lot just to be in this situation.

"It's great for guys to think maybe we're destined to do this. That comes along with confidence. It's the attitude from top to bottom that makes us so. Huff displays a very confident and at times mild-mannered attitude. The guy's been around a lot of football and you have to respect that.

"It trickles down to the coaches, down to the players. That's one thing we possess. That, and the resilience we've shown. We've won a lot of games late, in tight situations, and sometimes we've just had that good almighty Lord on our side. And sometimes you need Him. Have we been lucky at times? I guess. But I always think luck comes from proper preparation.

"Some people might call it luck. I call it preparation.''

The Stampeders prepared Friday to fly out unbowed by the Leos' prestigious credentials and that near-spotless West-Coast record.

"I mean, they've been beat,'' shrugs defensive lineman Corey Mace. "Beat there, too. So why shouldn't we be confident? They're just human beings. Just football players. They've got coaches and players. We got coaches and players. They line up and we play. We line up and play.

"They're the champs and we respect 'em but s---, they're a team, man.

"No different than us.''

Much is being made of momentum, of the five-game win streak the Stampeders' have pieced together, and an impressive 10 of 12 (including last Sunday's 36-30 West semi ousting of Saskatchewan) heading into Sunday's West Division semifinal. And justifiably so.

But the Leos are facing the Stamps with their starting quarterback, the reigning MOP, and two veteran slots teamed up too. They're at home, where, as mentioned, they're well nigh invincible. The spine of the whole enterprise is the league's toughest defensive nut to crack.

They have that 41-21 pasting absorbed here Oct. 26 to keep them sharp and honest and they, too, sport a 4-1 record in their last five.

The Stamps couldn't care less.

"You know the thing I really like about this team?'' says Mace. "You say 10 out of 12, that's not even on our minds. We just attack each one as it comes. If you hadn't told me that stat, seriously, I would not have known it. For real. I just like how we go after each and every game as if it really freakin' matters.

"And now it does. So we've already been doing that. You see the last couple of weeks, we'd already clinched so maybe we could afford to give away a game but we keep scratchin' and bitin' because we want the W. Now that it's win-or-get-lost time, we're in that mindset, have been for a long time now, so there's no need to amp up. We're already there.''

Consensus is that when the smoke finally does clear Sunday, it'll be close, and whichever side can hold its nerve the best will prevail.

There's also that romantic 'destiny's darlings' angle to consider.

"You don't want to buy into that too much,'' cautions Mace. "I see what you're saying, and we do have a great amount of confidence in ourselves after everything we've gone through this year, but you can't get complacent because you've still got to go out there and execute.

"Cause nothing magical is going to swoop in and miraculously save you.''

What will save them, what can keep this run alive and propel the Stampeders to Toronto for next weekend's Grey Cup extravaganza, is establishing the run game early with Jon Cornish, laying the kind of smack on Travis Lulay that they did on Mike Reilly the last time the teams collided, Oct. 26th at McMahon, winning the time-of-possession battle and playing turnover-free.

"Happy? Excited?'' The band frontman grins. "Of course we're happy and excited. Why wouldn't we be? You have to relish these moments. Enjoy 'em. You'd be foolish not to. That's why you look around here and see a lot of guys smiling. Because we're enjoying this.

"If you can't enjoy this, then you've got serious problems.

"And that's how it should be.''

KG and the Sunshine Band, heading to the BC Place boneyard, bright, loose and unafraid, unencumbered by any outward signs of trepidation and with absolutely no thought of adding to the skeletal remains to be found strewn about the lair.

That's the Way (They Like It). Ah-hah, ah-hah.

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